13 August
LIBRARY
John Newling:
Skulpturen (no.2 of 45 copies) [exhibition catalogue]
Krefelder
Kunstverein Buschhüterhaus, 1988
This book poses a
similar problem regarding care of a difficult
combination of materials as did yesterday's sculpture that was
made
a hundred years earlier. John Newling's work is concerned with
the
physical properties of materials and the symbolic value of
everyday
objects. The book's covers are sheets of copper and steel, hinged
together. The pages are glued inside. It was always difficult to
handle without damaging it so, in consultation with Newling, some
conservation work was recently carried out to remove the glue and
replace it with a more stable adhesive. The conservator wrote: 'I
am
not proposing to do anything about the metal corrosion which is
probably from readers fingerprints because you obviously treat
this
as a book to be used and not a work of art to be kept in a
glasscase'.
